For the use of cyclopropenes, the cyclopropene is often in the form of a complex with a molecular encapsulating agent. Such a complex is useful, for example, for use in treating plants or plant parts by contacting the plants or plant parts with the complex in order to bring about contact between the plants or plant parts and the cyclopropene. Such treatment of plants or plant parts is often effective at desirably interrupting one or more ethylene-mediated process in the plants or plant parts. For example, such treatment of plant parts can sometimes desirably delay unwanted ripening. For another example, such treatment of crop plants prior to harvest can sometimes improve the yield of the crop.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,313,068 discloses grinding and milling of dried powder of a complex of cyclodextrin and methylcyclopropene.
It is often useful to dissolve or suspend particles of such a complex in a liquid. However, when the liquid is an aqueous solution, it is sometimes found that contact between the water and the particles of the complex causes release of cyclopropene from the complex earlier than desired, and some or all of the cyclopropene is thus lost to the surroundings or destroyed by a chemical reaction or a combination thereof. Therefore, it is often desirable to suspend such particles in oil. However, in the past, attempts to suspend such particles in oil have found that such particles could not be suspended effectively in oil, often because the suspensions could not be sprayed properly, or because the suspensions had too high viscosity at reasonable concentration of particles, or because the suspensions were not stable, or because the suspensions had some combination of these problems.
Thus, there remains a need for stable liquid formulation for cyclopropene.